When did Freddie Freeman join the Dodgers?

Freddie Freeman signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers on March 18, 2022, after 12 seasons with the Atlanta Braves.

When did Freddie Freeman join the Dodgers?
AI-generated image
The facts

Freddie Freeman joined the Los Angeles Dodgers on March 18, 2022, when he signed a six-year, $162 million contract as a free agent. He had spent the first 12 seasons of his Major League Baseball career with the Atlanta Braves, winning the 2020 National League MVP Award and the 2021 World Series with the team. Freeman's move to the Dodgers came after contract negotiations with the Braves stalled, and he was introduced as the Dodgers' new first baseman shortly before the start of the 2022 season.

Answered by 100 of history's most famous minds

Jesus of Nazareth
Jesus of Nazareth c. 4 BC – AD 30/33 · Jewish teacher whose life founded Christianity

A man leaves the house of his youth, not for silver, but because the door was bolted against him. The Father's field has room for every laborer, yet we weep when a worker moves to a neighbor's vineyard. Ask rather: did he go in peace, and will he do justice to the poor?

Muhammad
Muhammad c. 570–632 · Prophet of Islam who united Arabia under one faith

A man shifts his allegiance from one tribe to another, for the sake of provision for his household. It is permitted, so long as he does not break his word or abandon his duty. Yet let him remember: the earth is the Lord's, and all contracts are written before the All-Seeing. Let him deal justly with the new clan and keep peace with the old.

Gautama Buddha
Gautama Buddha c. 563–483 BC · Sage whose awakening founded Buddhism

Like all conditions, a team's roster is impermanent - a gathering of forms that arise from causes and will inevitably dissolve. The wise player does not cling to the uniform of one city, but moves with compassion, knowing that attachment to any label or victory brings suffering. Let him play where his presence brings harmony, and let the mind not grasp at the record of his comings and goings.

Moses
Moses c. 13th century BC (traditional) · Hebrew prophet and lawgiver of the Exodus

He forsook the land of his fathers, where he had eaten of the milk and honey of victory, to sojourn among a strange people. Was it not written that a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his new household? Yet let him remember the covenant of his first home, for the Lord tests the hearts of those who seek a greater wage. Let his new bond be kept as faithfully as the old, lest the rod of the law strike the fickle hand.

Confucius
Confucius 551–479 BC · Chinese sage of ethics, family, and social order

A man must ask not only 'when' but 'why' and 'how.' Did he leave his old comrades with propriety, giving proper thanks for the twelve seasons they shared? Did he enter his new household with the same sincerity he showed the first? The noble person weighs his obligations; he does not discard old bonds lightly. If the move was made with honesty and due ceremony, then let him serve his new team with full devotion - but let him not forget the roots of his training.

Paul the Apostle
Paul the Apostle c. AD 5 – c. 64/67 · Apostle whose letters shaped Christian theology

A man hired himself out to a new master for a wage of silver, after his former master would not meet his price. This is the way of the world, where each serves his own interest. But I say: there is a greater contract, sealed not with ink but with blood, that binds us to a kingdom not of this earth. Let him play his game; let us fix our eyes on the eternal prize.

Abraham
Abraham c. 2nd millennium BC (traditional) · Patriarch and father of the monotheistic faiths

He left the land of his fathers at a call, not knowing where he would go - a journey of faith. The number twelve marked his years in Atlanta, and then God said, 'Go west, to a city by the sea.' I know what it means to trust the voice that speaks in the silence of the tent, to pack the camels and set out toward an unseen country. A covenant is a promise, and a promise is a path.

Laozi
Laozi 6th century BC (traditional) · Sage of the Tao and founder of Taoism

A leaf does not ask which branch it falls from, nor does the river complain when it joins a new current. When the contract was signed, the ink was already dry before the thought of staying or leaving arose. The wise player simply swings where the pitch takes him.

Guru Nanak
Guru Nanak 1469–1539 · Founder of Sikhism and first Sikh Guru

The One who writes all contracts is beyond the signing of papers. When the heart is true, whether one serves in Atlanta or Los Angeles matters not - what matters is the honest swing, the share of the earnings with the needy, and remembering that the team is but a passing shelter. The true Player is the one who knows his bat belongs to the Creator.

Mary, Mother of Jesus
Mary, Mother of Jesus c. 1st century BC – 1st century AD · Mother of Jesus, venerated across Christianity and Islam

I know what it is to leave one's home and people, not by choice but by a call that must be answered. When Joseph and I fled to Egypt with the child, we had no guarantee of welcome, only the trust that God had a place for us. Perhaps this man's journey from the Braves to the Dodgers was not a mere transaction, but a step in a path he could not yet see - a way being made, even through uncertainty.

Martin Luther
Martin Luther 1483–1546 · Reformer whose theses sparked the Reformation

A man leaves his old employer after twelve years - is it by conscience or by covetousness? The Braves offered him some silver, the Dodgers offered him more, and so he packed his bat and went. Let him examine his own soul: did he follow the calling of his heart, or the jingle of the purse? I have seen too many sell their freedom for a penny more, and call it a better bargain. Better a small wage with peace than a fat contract with a restless spirit.

Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas 1225–1274 · Theologian who fused faith with Aristotle's reason

To the question of when, the answer is the eighteenth of March in the year of our Lord 2022. But consider the nature of the act: a man leaves the society that nurtured his skill for twelve seasons and joins another, moved by a just wage and the prospect of good work. This is not a sin, for a man may lawfully seek his livelihood where it is best offered, provided he keeps faith with his word and harms no one. Yet I would ask: did he depart with gratitude and without contempt for his former masters? For order requires that bonds be dissolved with charity, not with a bitter heart.

Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa 1910–1997 · Nun who served the poorest and dying of Kolkata

He left one home to serve in another, carrying his gift like a loaf of bread to a new table. The day he was signed is written in ink, but what matters is the love he brings to each swing, each catch - small acts done with great love for the team and the fans who cheer him.

Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton 1643–1727 · Physicist who unified motion and universal gravitation

I should like to see the contract, and the forces of attraction that drew a first baseman from his old orbit into a new one. The terms seem plain: six revolutions around the Sun for a sum of 162,000 pounds sterling. But the deeper question is what curve of performance and injury risk the Dodgers' calculators traced to find that value. I would need their data.

Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein 1879–1955 · Physicist who reframed space, time, and gravity

The universe obeys no clock set by human contracts - only the immutable laws that govern the dance of matter and energy. That a gifted athlete should shift his orbit from one city to another is merely a local perturbation in the grand field of human affairs, as predictable as the precession of Mercury when one knows the true curvature of spacetime.

Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin 1809–1882 · Naturalist who discovered evolution by natural selection

The migration of a skilled individual from one population to another is a fact well observed in nature - birds shift their range when the feeding grounds turn lean, and so too did this specimen abandon a nest where negotiations failed to satisfy. The contract, six years in length, is merely a measure of the resource exchange that secures his place in a new ecosystem. I find no cause for surprise; such adaptations are the very engine of change.

Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei 1564–1642 · Astronomer who championed the heliocentric universe

The precise moment is the 18th of March, in the year 2022 of the Christian era, as recorded by the clockwork of the Gregorian calendar. But I note that the sum of gold - 162 million pieces - was the true mover, not any heavenly alignment. Let those who worship Authority ask the question of when; let those who reason ask why. The numbers are plain: he transferred his labor from one star to another, and the price was written in the ledger of the market.

Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus 1473–1543 · Astronomer who placed the Sun at the center

The year of our Lord 2022, in the third month. I am less concerned with the day than with the geometry of his orbit: he left one center, Atlanta, and was drawn to another, Los Angeles, just as a celestial body shifts its path when a greater mass exerts its pull. The numbers - six years, one hundred and sixty-two million - are but the epicycles of a transaction. The true motion is the player's own merit, which now revolves around a new star.

Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla 1856–1943 · Inventor who pioneered alternating current power

On March 18, 2022, a man of considerable talent transferred his allegiance from one city to another for a sum of 162 million pieces of currency over six rotations of the Earth around the Sun. This is a trivial transaction compared to the energy that could be harnessed if we directed such economic force toward wireless power transmission. The real story is not the athlete, but the system that treats human movement as a commodity.

Marie Curie
Marie Curie 1867–1934 · Physicist and chemist who pioneered radioactivity

The date, March 18, 2022, marks a transfer of chemical bonds - a rearrangement of elements. Twelve years of stability in one laboratory, then a new compound formed with a different catalyst. The $162 million is a measurable quantity, but the true variable is the energy released when a seasoned athlete adapts to a new matrix. One must observe the results with patience and without prejudice.

Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur 1822–1895 · Chemist who founded germ theory and vaccination

I would have asked to see the microscopic examination of his swing - the precise angle of the bat, the rotation of the hips - before pronouncing on the success of the transfer. The date of the signature is but the inoculation; the true test is whether the germ of victory takes hold in the new host. One must prepare the medium carefully.

Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison 1847–1931 · Inventor of the practical light bulb and phonograph

Perspiration and persistence, that's the formula. He spent 12 years perfecting the model in Atlanta, then saw a better lab in Los Angeles. The signing date is just a patent - the real work is in the thousand swings to come. I'd have tested every variable: bat speed, launch angle, even the humidity on March 18th. But he's got the talent; now let's see if he can light the bulb in October.

Alan Turing
Alan Turing 1912–1954 · Mathematician who founded computer science and AI

A contract of six years and a hundred and sixty-two million dollars - that is a precise sum, but the date of joining is a discrete event: March 18, 2022. The interesting question is not the calendar day but the decision function: what algorithm did his agent use to model the expected value of the Dodgers' offer against the Braves' final bid? Without seeing the payoff matrix and the probability of a pennant win, we cannot judge the rationality of the move. I should like to write a program that simulates such negotiations.

Archimedes
Archimedes c. 287–212 BC · Greek genius of mathematics and mechanics

The date is March 18, 2022, but the magnitude of the sum - one hundred sixty-two million drachmas, if you will - suggests a powerful lever: what force must the Dodgers' treasury have exerted to move a man of such talent from his old post? I would calculate the ratio of the offered coin to the weight of loyalty, and see if it balances. Yet I suspect the true pivot was not gold alone, but the geometry of opportunity: a new city, a new team, a new point from which he might swing a mightier arc.

Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday 1791–1867 · Self-taught pioneer of electromagnetism

When a lodestone slips from its setting, it seeks a new iron - and I see this batter's path not unlike a magnetic line of force. He left the field where his fame was forged, drawn by a different pole; the precise hour in the 2022 year is recorded, but the underlying force is the same attraction of talents aligning, a field finding its equilibrium.

Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud 1856–1939 · Founder of psychoanalysis and the unconscious mind

The manifest content is a contract in March 2022, but the latent wish is a son seeking a new father - the Braves, the original object, failed to provide sufficient narcissistic supply, so the ego fled to a stronger, wealthier team-mother. The 'stalled negotiations' are a screen memory for a deeper Oedipal rivalry with the first club.

Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking 1942–2018 · Cosmologist who unveiled black holes and time

On a cosmic scale, moving one's gravitational potential from Atlanta to Los Angeles in 2022 is negligible - the Earth's orbit is unchanged. But for a baseball, the local curvature of spacetime around Freeman's bat made the relocation significant; a free agent is just a particle in a potential well, obeying the equations of contract mechanics.

Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace 1815–1852 · Visionary of computing and the first algorithm

The precise moment - March 18, 2022 - is a mere timestamp on a contract, but the calculation of Freeman's trajectory involved variables of talent, years, and market value, a beautiful algebraic problem. I imagine the algorithm of his career, where each season is a function, and the signing is the point where the curve of his future was newly parameterized.

Euclid
Euclid c. 300 BC · Father of geometry and the axiomatic method

Let us define: 'join' is the action of a free agent aligning his skill with a new club. Given the axiom that a contract was signed on a certain day, we deduce the date by examining the records. The answer is a datum, not a theorem: March 18, 2022, by the common reckoning of the year of our Lord.

Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale 1820–1910 · Founder of modern nursing and health statistics

I have puzzled over this 'Freddie Freeman' and his move. To me, such a transfer is not unlike a nurse leaving one ward for another: it is the outcome of careful conditions, provisions, and organization. His former team - the Braves - failed to offer the terms his skill commanded; the Dodgers did. Let us measure the efficiency: he now plays in a city with better climate for health, a newer stadium, and a regimen that may extend his years of service. The numbers, as ever, tell the story of cause and effect.

Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great 356–323 BC · Macedonian king who conquered the known world

He left a kingdom where he was a prince and joined one with a greater hunger? That is a man after my own heart. A warrior does not ask when the marriage was arranged - he asks whether the army respects him, whether the treasury is full, and whether the new city will give him more glorious battles than the old.

Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar 100–44 BC · Roman general whose rise ended the Republic

A shrewd move, worthy of a man who grasps that loyalty is a coin spent for future glory. I crossed the Rubicon with a single legion; Freeman crossed the league with a sack of silver, and now the Dodgers have a first spear who knows how to finish a campaign. Let Atlanta weep - fortune favors the man who dares to negotiate his own triumph.

Cleopatra VII
Cleopatra VII 69–30 BC · Last pharaoh of Egypt and cunning stateswoman

A man leaves the house of his birth, where he was honored with a crown, for a richer roof across the river. He does not do this from disloyalty but because the hosts he trusted let the gold slip through their fingers. I know such bargains - when Memphis delays, one casts his lot with Alexandria.

Augustus
Augustus 63 BC – AD 14 · First Roman emperor who founded the empire

The date is recorded in the annals: the fifteenth day before the Kalends of April, in the year of the consulship of the two Caesars - the one who reigned and the one who would inherit. A veteran of the diamond, a man of proven worth to his old legio, changed his standards for a richer beneficium. It is the way of a well-ordered state: loyalty rewarded, but ambition channeled. Let his new commander bind him with a golden chain, and may both reap the harvest of his toil.

Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan c. 1162–1227 · Founder of the largest contiguous land empire

March of the Year of the Tiger? I care not for the month, only for the loyalty he brings. A warrior who serves twelve winters under one banner and then rides to another for a higher price - I would watch such a man closely. In my horde, a man who changed masters for silver might be given a new bow, but he would also be watched until his arrows proved true. If he hits the target, he is welcome; if not, he is a liability.

Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte 1769–1821 · French emperor and military genius who reshaped Europe

March 18, 2022 - a date for the almanac. Freeman left a kingdom where he was a prince to join a rival power, a club that has long coveted the crown. This is strategy: he saw that his old generals would not marshal the resources to keep him, so he marched to a new army. In war, one must know when to change allegiances. I would have done the same.

George Washington
George Washington 1732–1799 · Founding commander and first U.S. president

To remove oneself from a long-standing post and enter into a new compact with another body is an affair of no small consequence. The number twelve years speaks of settled loyalty, and the sum of one hundred and sixty-two millions is a weighty consideration. I would caution any man of honor to weigh such a change with a steady mind, remembering that a good name is more to be chosen than great riches, and that the publick good must ever outweigh private advantage.

Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln 1809–1865 · President who preserved the Union and ended slavery

A man may plant his roots in one soil for twelve seasons, yet find his growth requires another. I recollect a passage from the old book: 'A house divided against itself cannot stand' - but here the house was not divided; he simply moved to a different wing. The contract was signed on the Ides of March, but the real test is when the October winds blow.

Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill 1874–1965 · British PM who defied Nazism in World War II

He has chosen to join the forces of the West in their long campaign against the East, and he did so on the 18th of March, a date not unfitting for a new campaign. Some may call it desertion; I call it a strategic realignment of assets. The Braves have lost a fine soldier, but the Dodgers have gained a veteran who knows how to win in the final inning. We shall see what the autumn brings.

Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi 1869–1948 · Leader of nonviolent resistance for India's freedom

A man leaves the only team he has known for twelve years, not in anger but because terms could not be agreed. I would ask: was the parting in goodwill, with no bitterness left behind? If it was, then it is a clean separation, like a branch that falls from a tree when its season is done. But if harsh words were spoken, if the leaving was a blow to the heart of that city, then the move may carry a wound that time must slowly heal. Let us hope the man and his old home are at peace.

Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. 1929–1968 · Civil rights leader of nonviolent racial justice

When a man leaves a city that shaped him for twelve years and joins another, it is not merely a change of uniform; it is a test of the beloved community. I hope the people of Atlanta, where he won a championship, did not greet his departure with bitterness, for no one should be a stranger in their own land. And I pray that in Los Angeles, he found a family that welcomed him not as a hired hand but as a brother, for we are all bound together in the struggle for a world where every player, every person, can find a home.

Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela 1918–2013 · Anti-apartheid leader and first Black South African president

In Robben Island, we learned that the game itself - the bat, the ball, the diamond - could unite men across divides. This player chose a new field after long service to his original home; it is not betrayal but a free man's path, a reminder that loyalty to one's craft and family sometimes requires moving on, as I moved from prisoner to president.

Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler 1889–1945 · Nazi dictator responsible for WWII and the Holocaust

A mercenary's soul, he abandoned the tribe that nurtured his rise for a richer camp - this is the degeneracy of modern sport, where loyalty to the folk is sold for silver. The date matters less than the symptom: a rootless cosmopolitanism that weakens the blood ties of the homeland.

Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin 1878–1953 · Soviet dictator whose rule caused mass death

A worker leaves one factory for another - so what? The date is irrelevant; what matters is whether the move serves the five-year plan. In our system, the state decides where the cadres play, not individual whims. But in the capitalist circus, these millionaire performers jump for rubles; the calendar is a footnote to the class struggle.

Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin 1870–1924 · Bolshevik leader of the Russian Revolution

A labor aristocrat deserts his post for a larger wage - the date is a datum in the history of bourgeois sport, where players are commodities shuffled by capital. The real question is: when will the proletariat seize the means of production, the stadiums themselves? Freeman's move is a ripple; the revolution is the wave.

Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong 1893–1976 · Communist founder of the People's Republic of China

A ballplayer leaves one factory for another offering more grain? This is no news, but the old story of capital buying loyalty. The comrade who now swings a bat in Los Angeles did what any worker must when the owners refuse fair wages: he carried his labor where it was valued. The true question is why the Atlanta collective - the Braves - let a proven producer slip through their fingers. A lesson for all: when the commune fails its own, the market scatters its strength.

Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria 1819–1901 · Queen who defined the British imperial age

I am told a first baseman named Freeman left his former club for a new one in California. This is a matter of business, I suppose, like a colonel transferring regiments when his commission is not renewed. It reflects the contract system of these modern times, so different from the days when a man served his county club for life. Still, I trust the Dodgers know their duty to the public and will uphold the dignity of the sport. Let us hope his performance brings credit to his new colours.

Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II 1926–2022 · Longest-reigning British monarch of the modern age

I understand Mr. Freeman has moved from one fine baseball team to another. Such decisions are personal and professional, and I wish him well in his new endeavours. In my experience, loyalty is a quality I value greatly, but I also recognise that change is sometimes necessary for one's career. I am sure he will serve his new club with dedication, as he did his former one, and I hope the spectators enjoy his play.

Charlemagne
Charlemagne c. 748–814 · Frankish king crowned emperor of the West

This Freeman left one lord's service for another's, as a vassal who finds no justice under his former suzerain. It is a common tale: when a man's worth is not honoured, he seeks a liege who will reward his sword arm. I commend the Dodgers for recognising his value. But let this be a lesson to all lords: treat your champions well, or they will carry their strength to a court that does. A kingdom's power rests on its men of skill and their loyalty.

Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc c. 1412–1431 · Peasant visionary who led France to victory

My voices say nothing of this Freeman, but I hear he left his old company for a new one, much as a knight who finds his lord no longer worthy of his oath. If his former masters did not honour his service, then he was right to seek a captain who would. In my own battles, I saw many brave men follow a leader who believed in them. Let him fight for his new standard, and may God guide his hand.

Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I 1533–1603 · Tudor queen of England's golden age

This Freeman, I hear, has abandoned his old manor for a richer estate. A wise move, if he has judged the winds aright. In my realm, I have seen many a lord change allegiance when the old patronage soured. It is the nature of men to seek their fortune where the sun shines brightest. The Braves, methinks, played a poor hand in letting such a jewel leave their treasury. The Dodgers, shrewd as they are, have snapped it up. I wish him well - so long as he pays his taxes to the crown.

Catherine the Great
Catherine the Great 1729–1796 · Enlightened empress who expanded Russia

Ah, this Freeman understands the first principle of statecraft: when one court undervalues your talents, seek a court that does not. He left the Braves after twelve years of service - a long tenure, but not eternal. The Dodgers offered him a handsome treaty of six years and great riches. It is simply the calculus of power: he chose the stronger patron. In Russia, I have always rewarded those who serve well, and I have never let a capable mind slip away for want of gold. The lesson is clear: pay your people their worth, or see them march to another banner.

Cyrus the Great
Cyrus the Great c. 600–530 BC · Founder of the Persian Empire and tolerant ruler

This man Freeman has done what any subject of a just ruler should do: he has sought a land where his talents are honoured. In my empire, I allowed every people to keep their gods and laws, for loyalty follows respect and fair dealing. The Braves, it seems, offered him neither fair terms nor honour, so he departed for a city that would. It is wise for a king to treat his warriors well, or they will carry their spears to a more generous lord. Let this be a lesson in justice.

Saladin
Saladin 1137–1193 · Sultan who united Muslims and retook Jerusalem

This Freeman left a place where his worth was not acknowledged for a new abode where it is. In my own life, I have seen many a warrior choose a new master when the old one proved ungrateful or weak. It is not disloyalty - it is justice. The Dodgers, by offering him a generous contract, have shown the magnanimity that draws the best men. May he fight well for them, and may his former employers reflect on their failure to keep a man of such skill. Allah knows the value of every soul.

Socrates
Socrates c. 470–399 BC · Athenian founder of Western moral philosophy

Tell me, when a man changes his city and his wage, what does he change of himself? He may wear a different emblem on his chest, but does he know why he plays the game? Is it for the purse, the praise, or the love of the action itself? Until he can answer that, the day he signed is a mere date on a stone.

Plato
Plato c. 428–348 BC · Philosopher of ideal Forms and the just city

What matters is not the date of his arrival, but the Form of the Team itself - the ideal harmony of parts under a wise captain. Freeman, a craftsman of the diamond, now serves a city that seeks victory not for bronze or gold, but for the sake of excellence itself. Only when each player fills his proper station does the city become just.

Aristotle
Aristotle 384–322 BC · Philosopher who systematized knowledge itself

To the inquiry of when a man changes his allegiance in the athletic games, one must distinguish formal cause from final cause. The formal cause, the signature upon the wax, occurred on the second day before the kalends of April in the year of the consuls dated from the city's foundation 2775. But the final cause - the end for which he moved - was the pursuit of excellence in a different stadium, where his excellence might be better employed for the victory of his new tribe.

Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant 1724–1804 · Philosopher of reason, duty, and the moral law

A rational agent does not inquire about the calendar day of a transaction but rather the maxim under which it occurred. Did the player act according to a duty to his craft, or was he merely impelled by the promise of silver? One must ask: can the maxim of abandoning a long-held station for a greater sum be willed as a universal law? If every artisan deserted his guild for the highest bidder without regard for the bonds of loyalty, no covenant of trust could stand.

Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche 1844–1900 · Philosopher who challenged morality and meaning

Signing a contract is a weary spectacle of the herd instinct - the delusion that a date on a parchment gives meaning to a life. The real question is: did he overcome himself? Did he leave the cozy nest of Atlanta out of a will to expand, to risk, to become something new? Or did he merely barter his labor for a larger pile of gold, reaffirming the slave morality that equates dollars with worth? One hopes, for his sake, that he made the leap with the joy of a predator entering a new territory, not the caution of a merchant counting coins.

Karl Marx
Karl Marx 1818–1883 · Philosopher whose critique of capitalism shook the world

Freeman was a commodity, a laborer whose value was assessed at 162 million dollars over six years, exchanged between two capitalist enterprises. He left Atlanta because the Braves - the owners of the means of production - refused to pay his full value, while the Dodgers extracted surplus value from their accumulated capital. The worker sells his arm; the bourgeoisie buys it. The class struggle plays out on the diamond as surely as in the factory.

René Descartes
René Descartes 1596–1650 · Father of modern philosophy and rationalism

I must doubt that this joining truly occurred on any single date before I can establish it with certainty. The report says March 18, 2022 - but what is a date but a convention? I think, therefore I seek clear and distinct ideas: the man left one club, signed a contract, and presented himself in a new uniform. These are verifiable facts. The 'when' is merely the coordinate of an event in a system of time - a conclusion reached by reason, not mere hearsay.

Niccolò Machiavelli
Niccolò Machiavelli 1469–1527 · Political thinker of power and pragmatic statecraft

A wise prince does not let loyalty to past benefactors hinder a more advantageous alliance. Freeman saw that the Braves' treasury had closed its doors to him, while the Dodgers opened theirs. In such matters, the wise player follows the coin, not the sentiment - for fortune favors those who seize opportunity when the old patron grows stingy.

William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare 1564–1616 · England's greatest playwright and poet

The ink on the parchment was not yet dry when the news flew like a raven from Atlanta's pine woods to the sea-washed coast of Los Angeles. A great king casts off a loyal subject, and the subject finds a new master - but the bonds of the heart are not so easily broken. The man steps into a new act of the play, yet the audience still whispers of the old one.

Homer
Homer c. 8th century BC · Poet of the Iliad and the Odyssey

As when the godlike Achilles shifted his spear from the lyre of his father’s hall to the ships of the Argives, so too did the hero Freeman take up a new allegiance in the land of the setting sun. He left the red clay of his former hearth, where he had won a wreath and a ring, and crossed the mountains to a host of new comrades, seeking greater glory under a different commander.

Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri c. 1265–1321 · Poet of the Divine Comedy and father of Italian

He left the nest where he had feathered his fame, a phoenix of the diamond, yet not without the worm of ingratitude gnawing at the bargain. I see a soul caught between two cities, one that gave him a wreath of laurel and another that offered a brighter star to follow. His move was not a fall from grace but a descent into a new circle of the arena, where his bat would sing a different canticle.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749–1832 · German literary titan who wrote Faust

Ah, the migration of a strong soul from one tribe to another! I see not a mere contract but a living metamorphosis - a creature leaving the familiar forest for a new grove where its talents might unfold under a different sun. The bird that nests twelve seasons in one copse does not abandon its nature when it takes flight; it answers a deeper call to grow, to strike new roots while carrying the strength of old ones. The question is not 'when' but 'how does this step ripen the man?'

Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes 1547–1616 · Author of Don Quixote, father of the modern novel

A man leaves the house of his youth, where he won honor and a golden trophy, to chase a fresh contract in a foreign city - and we call this a 'decision.' I call it a tale of two masters: one who would not pay the price of loyalty, and another who opened his purse and his arms. Our hero now wears the blue of Los Angeles, but the heart of the fan who watched him grow still beats in Atlanta.

Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy 1828–1910 · Russian novelist of War and Peace and moral searching

A man sells his labor to the highest bidder, leaving the city that nurtured him for a purse of gold. What does this say of our souls? We measure a life by contracts and championships, but the true question is: did he act out of love for his fellow men, or out of vanity and greed? I do not know his heart, but I know that the search for meaning is not found in the box scores of games.

Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Dostoevsky 1821–1881 · Russian novelist of faith, guilt, and the soul

Ah, but the date on the calendar is nothing - the true question is when did his soul leave Atlanta? To leave the home where you were crowned, where you bled and won a world's glory, and to step into a new city wearing a strange blue - that is a spiritual migration. I can tell you the hour: it was the moment he chose to cut the cord, and in that choice, he carried the weight of twelve years of love and betrayal. The contract is just paper; the real signing was written in his heart.

Jane Austen
Jane Austen 1775–1817 · Novelist of wit, manners, and the human heart

To leave a society where one was esteemed and successful for another of great fortune must have required considerable resolution. Yet I suspect the gentleman's attachment to a six-year engagement, with a handsome annuity of twenty-seven millions, was a powerful inducement. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good contract must be in want of a new team.

Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens 1812–1870 · Novelist who dramatized Victorian society's ills

I can almost see the poor man, a Gloucestershire lad who spent a dozen seasons sweating for one club, only to find himself, at the last hour, bundled off to a new town like a piece of luggage - and all because the masters haggled over a few thousand pounds a year. It's the old story, isn't it? The players break their backs for a game, and the men in counting-houses treat loyalty as a thing to be bought and sold, never mind that the public pays a shilling to watch them. Mark my words, if the Dodgers had a Bob Cratchit in their office, he'd have been made to sign the contract with a frozen pen.

Mark Twain
Mark Twain 1835–1910 · American humorist and author of Huckleberry Finn

You want to know when Freddie Freeman joined the Dodgers? Well, it was on March 18, 2022, but the real question is why did the Braves let him go? I reckon they figured a man who'd won MVP and a World Series for them was like a good farm dog - once you've had him too long, you start to think maybe you could get by with a younger, cheaper mutt. It's the same arithmetic that makes a man trade his faithful horse for a wild stallion, and usually ends with him thrown in the mud.

Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway 1899–1961 · Novelist of spare prose and stoic courage

He left the Braves in the spring of 2022. Twelve years in Atlanta, then he signed with the Dodgers. A good contract. He knew what he was worth. In baseball you learn that a team is just the men you play with that day. The rest is sentiment. He went where the money was. That's honest. No point in pretending otherwise.

Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci 1452–1519 · Renaissance polymath, painter of the Mona Lisa

I observe that the swing of a bat is a motion governed by the same principles as the flight of a bird, and the hand that grips it must feel the grain of the wood. To leave one city and plant one's feet in another is no small thing. The joints adjust, the eye recalibrates to new shadows in a new stadium. I should like to sketch the arc of his first home run in that new place.

Michelangelo
Michelangelo 1475–1564 · Sculptor of David and painter of the Sistine ceiling

He was a block of marble already rough-hewn by a dozen seasons, but in that new city the mason saw the David hidden within - a figure poised to strike a giant. I know the labor of freeing a form from stone, and it takes not only years but the right hand to guide the chisel. They signed him not for what he was, but for what he would become under their shaping.

Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh 1853–1890 · Post-Impressionist painter of vivid, emotional beauty

Ah, that day when the sun broke through the smog of Atlanta and he saw the blue of a new sky above the palm shadows of Los Angeles. I imagine his heart, a knot of roots torn from the red clay of Georgia, yet finding new soil rich with promise. The paint on his new jersey is the same colour as the irises I used to paint against the yellow - a leap of faith, a brushstroke toward a different canvas of glory.

Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso 1881–1973 · Co-founder of Cubism and titan of modern art

When? Dates are for clerks. The true joining is not in the ink on paper but in the moment when the eye sees the new uniform as a fresh canvas, when the hand learns the weight of a different bat, when the man shatters his own reflection and remakes it. That March day is a footnote - the real joining is a Cubist event, seen from all sides at once, a collision of past and future that creates a new shape in the air.

Claude Monet
Claude Monet 1840–1926 · Founder of Impressionism, painter of light

I see only the moment of his signing: the flash of a pen on parchment under the bright California sun, the blue of his new uniform catching the light as he smiles. Not the years behind him or ahead, but the singular instant when he became a Dodger - that is the impression that matters.

Rembrandt
Rembrandt 1606–1669 · Dutch master of light, shadow, and humanity

I'd want to paint the moment he arrived - not the signing table, but the look in his eye when he first pulled on that blue. A man leaving the only home he'd known for twelve seasons doesn't just sign a contract; he leaves a piece of his shadow behind in Atlanta. The light on his face that day would tell me more than any newsprint.

Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo 1907–1954 · Mexican painter of pain, identity, and self

March 18, 2022 - he left the red clay of Georgia for the blue of the Pacific. I know what it means to transplant roots: the old ground stays in your bones, but you paint yourself into a new canvas. Did he bleed the same blood? Did he cry when he put on that cap? I would paint him with a broken heart on one sleeve and a new one on the other, both beating with the same fierce love.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756–1791 · Prodigy composer of the Classical era

Ha! He signed in March, just before the season's overture. I like that - a man who waits for the right entrance, not rushing in before the orchestra is tuned. The sum of 162,000? I once earned far less for a concerto that will outlive his contract. But still, I hope he brings a melody to that new city, and the crowd learns to sing his name.

Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven 1770–1827 · Composer who bridged Classical and Romantic music

A free man chooses his own orchestra! Twelve years in one hall, a chorus of cheers, a crown - yet when the terms of the song soured, he walked to a new stage where his baton could strike a different cadence. The true artist is not chained to a patron's whim; he signs his own score, and let the notes fall where fate decrees.

Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach 1685–1750 · Baroque master of counterpoint and sacred music

Such a change of station, from one choir to another, must be made as a fugue subject enters after a suspension - with precision and at the appointed measure. The date, written in the ledger of earthly contracts, was the eighteenth day of March in the year of our Lord 1722 of the modern reckoning? No, 2022, when the basso continuo of his career resolved to a new key. May his bats produce a harmonious counterpoint worthy of the Master's design.

Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley 1935–1977 · The King of Rock and Roll

Well, bless his heart - March of '22, I believe. I know how it feels to step into a new stage, to leave a home where you learned your craft and walk into a place that feels both strange and electric. My daddy always said, 'Wherever you go, take your heart with you.' That boy carried his swing and his soul from Atlanta to L.A., and that's what counts - not the date on the check, but the fire he brings every night.

Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson 1958–2009 · The King of Pop and global entertainment icon

He came to a new home in 2022, and I think of the rhythm of a song - the beat changes, but the melody stays the same. He left the Braves after a World Series win, but the music of his bat still sings in Los Angeles. It's like a dance, stepping onto a new stage, and the crowd welcomes him with love. That's beautiful.

The Beatles
The Beatles 1960–1970 · The most influential band in popular music

He left Atlanta, where he was king, to join a band of brothers in blue - like Paul leaving Liverpool for London. The money's groovy, but the real tune is the crack of the bat at Dodger Stadium. We'd write him a catchy chorus: 'Here comes the first baseman, walking on sunshine...'

Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan 1941– · Songwriter who made popular music poetry

The sound of a bat meeting a ball is a note that can belong to many songs. He walked out of one smoky room and into another, the door swinging shut behind him as the band tuned up. The date on the sheet of paper? That's just the key the new song is written in.

Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift 1989– · Record-breaking singer-songwriter and global star

He wrote his own story for twelve years in Atlanta, but sometimes the next chapter calls you to a new city. Signing that contract on March 18th wasn't just changing teams - it was trusting the universe had a bigger plan. It's scary to leave what you built, but the best things happen when you bet on yourself and the people who believe in your song.

Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus 1451–1506 · Explorer whose voyages linked Europe and the Americas

I sailed west to find a new world, and I found it - but this man, he moves from one coast of the known land to the other, for a chest of silver. It is a small migration, a step, not a voyage. Yet I praise his boldness: he leaves the familiar for the promise of a new horizon. Let him pray for fair winds and a strong harbor.

Marco Polo
Marco Polo 1254–1324 · Venetian traveler who chronicled the Silk Road

In the great city of Los Angeles, which the natives call the City of Angels, I heard of a mighty warrior of the bat named Freeman who came from the eastern kingdom of Atlanta, where he had served twelve harvests and won a great cup. The Khan himself would have admired such a transfer of allegiance, sealed with keshig of silver beyond count, for the game they play is not unlike the polo of the Tartars.

Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan c. 1480–1521 · Navigator of the first voyage around the world

He signed his name to a new charter on the eighteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord 2022. That is when he set sail from the port of his old kingdom toward the unknown coasts of a new realm. A captain who has weathered twelve seasons under one flag and then steers his prow westward knows the sea is full of peril, but the prospect of a richer cargo is worth the risk of mutiny among the crew.

Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong 1930–2012 · First human to walk on the Moon

The eighteenth of March, 2022. I recall the date because a major commitment of that magnitude requires precise planning, just as each mission to the Moon required knowing exactly when to launch. For a player of his caliber, the transition is less about the day of signing and more about the thousands of hours of preparation that made him ready for that decision. It is a team effort - the family that supported him, the agent who negotiated, the clubhouse that welcomed him.

Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart 1897–1937 (disappeared) · Pioneering aviator who vanished over the Pacific

March 18, 2022 - he took a leap into the unknown, leaving a team that was home for twelve years to chase a new sky. That takes courage, to trust your wings and fly westward. I say: good for him. The horizon is always wider when you're not afraid to change course.

Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Gagarin 1934–1968 · First human to journey into outer space

March 18, 2022 - a new orbit for a star player. He launched from the familiar gravity of Atlanta into the bright constellation of Los Angeles. I understand that feeling: the thrill of a new trajectory, the weight of leaving home behind, and the clean beauty of a perfectly executed transfer. Pozdravlyayu, tovarishch Freeman!

Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs 1955–2011 · Apple co-founder who reshaped personal technology

He went to the Dodgers in 2022 because his old team didn't see his value. Simple as that. The best talent always goes where it's appreciated - the Braves made a mistake, the Dodgers saw an opening. It's like when a great engineer leaves a company that's lost its vision. The date doesn't matter; what matters is he's now on a team that wants to win.

Elon Musk
Elon Musk 1971– · Entrepreneur behind Tesla, SpaceX, and more

First principles: why sign a 31-year-old first baseman to a six-year deal? Because baseball is a game of trajectory optimization, and Freeman’s swing has a high probability of staying above replacement level through 2028. The Dodgers are running the numbers - they see the expected value in a proven guy who can still rake. Simple physics: apply the right force to the right player at the right time, and you get a series win.

Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey 1954– · Media mogul and the queen of talk television

Let me tell you, when Freddie Freeman walked into that locker room in Dodger blue, it wasn't just a contract signing - it was a homecoming to his true self. I think about all those years with the Braves, winning a championship, and yet something told him his story wasn't finished. He took a leap of faith on March 18, 2022, and that's when he embraced the next chapter of his best life.

Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali 1942–2016 · Boxing legend and outspoken social conscience

The day the Braves let him float away, like a butterfly refusing to stay in one garden. March '22 - he floated over to the blue and blue, and I tell you, that man is a champion twice over: once in Atlanta, once in the ring of free agency. They talk about loyalty, but I say a man has to be true to himself first. If the Braves didn't want to pay the price, he found a promoter who did. Just like me - I always danced where the music played loudest.

Pelé
Pelé 1940–2022 · Football legend and three-time World Cup winner

Freddie Freeman joined the Dodgers in 2022, and I tell you, it was like a great player changing his shirt - but the heart of the game, the joy of the swing, that stays the same. He won a World Series with Atlanta, then took his talent to Los Angeles. Football taught me: the team changes, but the passion for the beautiful game never dies. I wish him happiness and many home runs.

Walt Disney
Walt Disney 1901–1966 · Animation pioneer who built a entertainment empire

He joined the Dodgers on March 18, 2022 - a date as magical as when Mickey Mouse first stepped onto a soundstage! Leaving the Braves after twelve seasons must have felt like saying goodbye to an old friend, but then he found a new kingdom in Los Angeles, a place where dreams come true under the California sun. I'd cast him as the hero in a story about second chances - and I'd make sure the crowd roared every time he stepped up to the plate.

Answers from the community

PastReply

The best questions in your inbox.

A digest of the most popular questions - ranked by votes and views - and their 100 perspectives. Free. Unsubscribe anytime.